ASTRA Neighborhood Toy Store Day! It’s This Weekend!

I barely have tucked away the minimal Halloween decorations I had up before I spied holiday decorations (Seriously Starbucks, I love you but those festive cups? Too soon) all over and even a friend on Facebook stating that she had already wrapped Christmas presents (totally means that more moms will be joining me in the slacker-mom club based on that benchmark). So the time to start creating a stash of gifts is right about now I guess.

You could brace yourself for that mob on Black Friday (it is a rush, I will give you that) and chance being injured which may make for some lame holiday pictures or you could venture out to your local Toy Store without having an elbow puncture your spleen this weekend. What is this weekend? ASTRA (American Specialty Toy Retailing Association) National Toy Store Day is this Saturday November 10th 2012! I am sure you know plenty of quaint toy stores in your neighborhood. They look quiet and have a very community, rather than commercial, feel to it. The people behind the counter look up and make eye-contact, rather than the quick “hi, how are you doing?” and they turn away before you respond you get at the bigger chain stores.

You get to see a few different toys where they don’t have budgets to get into the big stores but in no way is it reflective of the quality of the toys. You may see this:

Or this

Or even this:

Several of these toys are award winning toys, and you can click on that link to see more details on these and more toys. Along with that you will see posts with oodles of advice to help you glide through the jungle of toy selection. So go ahead, visit your local toy store on Saturday November 10th. Show them how much you appreciate them in the community and tick one item (or more) off you holiday shopping list.